Foam material modular toy structure

ABSTRACT

A foam material modular toy structure consisting of differently shaped solid components fabricated from a foam material, wherein each solid foam component has an octagonal through-hole and a projecting umbrella-shaped tenon, enabling assembly into a creative toy. Furthermore, the joints formed by umbrella-shaped tenons and the octagonal through-holes enables articulation at a range of angles and maintenance at fixed positions, with the utilization of a foam material having inherent elasticity enabling disassembly to reduce space occupancy and facilitate storage. As such, the present invention achieves the objectives of repeated creative assembly as well as lively, flexile operational performance.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1) Field Of The Invention

The invention herein relates to DIY-assembly toys, specifically a foammaterial modular toy structure in which solid foam components haveoctagonal through-holes and projecting umbrella-shaped tenons forrepeated assembly and disassembly according to the creativity of theuser such that the resulting toy is capable of lively, flexileoperational performance.

2) Description Of the Prior Art

Conventional DIY-assembly toys allow users to replicate or give form topersonally perceived space or individual creativity to achieve cognitivedevelopment and stimulation objectives. To young children in the stageof extreme interest in the external physical world and even for olderchildren who are starting to have their own thoughts, such playthingspromote intellectual conceptualization, awareness, and transformationand, therefore, are of positive assistance to both preschool and schoolage children.

DIY-assembly toys now observed on the market are typically fabricated ofplastic and wood materials; in the case of wood materials, since theyare obtained from trees, large volume utilization results in a rapidresource consumption and tree growth does not occur over such a shortperiod that the supply in endless; in addition, since trees regulateoverall environmental air quality, protect global surface waterreserves, and other aspects that affect mankind, if depleted by massivevolumes of deforestation, then the growth of living things in the entireglobal environment will suffer differing degrees of damage; althoughassembled toys only use a small percentage of wood, if every industryadopted the attitude of protecting precious environmental resources byreducing amounts utilized or substituted other materials inmanufacturing, this would be significant for global resources.Additionally, since children often do not understand normal usage,assembly-type toys constructed of wood material incur damage, includingbroken corners or bent and broken non-movable parts (due to very thinmembers of wood), the situations of improper use result in physical harmto children, a moment of inattention risking injuries ranging fromsuperficial cuts with minor swelling to bleeding puncture wounds;furthermore, assembly-type toy utilization and operation of courseentails “assembly and installation” tasks, but assembly toys constructedof wood material only use peripheral grooves for insertional conjoinment(as shown in FIG. 1), the entire toy thereby ending up in a rigidangular state without active variation capability, which generally failsto stir the attention and interest of children, who only need operate itonce to realize the lack of amusement value, following which the saidtoy would be set aside; or if moved and picked up, an entireassembly-type toy not having a durable arrangement simply loosens andfalls apart, and as such must be reassembled or if not possible,completely disassembled and put away.

Plastic material construction of course solves the problem of woodresource depletion and such toys are more difficult to damage and haveother advantages, but during assembly one discovers that when any twotoy pieces are conjoined, a large headed male fitting is positioned byinsertion through the hole of a female fitting such that loosening anddislodging does not easily occur during movement, resulting in extremedifficulty when storage and disassembly is required; pulling them apartinvolves great persistence, frictional wear occurs after a certainperiod such that the male fitting becomes smaller and the female fittinggrows larger, with conjoinment into fixed position no longer possibleafter a while; additionally, since conjoining pairs of fittings intoposition was possible at the beginning, children often playfully turnthe axially rotatable areas such that stationery positioning capabilityis lost after a certain period of time due to frictional wear betweenpairs of hard plastic bodies and as the parts of the toy are turnedduring utilization, the said toy eventually crumples onto the floorbecause of its weight, illustrating that conventional assembly-type toysare only capable of attracting the interest of children for a briefperiod, following which they are ignored.

In view of the said elaboration, the applicant of the invention hereindevoted substantial effort to improve the said drawbacks, culminating inthe successful development of the present invention, which is submittedas a new patent application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the invention herein is to provide a foammaterial modular toy structure consisting of differently shaped solidcomponents fabricated from a foam material, wherein each solid foamcomponent has an octagonal through-hole and a projecting umbrella-shapedtenon, enabling the user to assemble them based on their own creativity;the joints formed by umbrella-shaped tenons and the octagonalthrough-holes enables articulation at a range of angles and maintenanceat fixed positions without collapsing due to weight factors; and sincefoam material has inherent elasticity, the joint areas enable releasefor disassembly and knockdown to reduce space occupancy and facilitatestorage, the invention herein thereby capable of providing for repeatedcreative assembly as well as lively, flexile operational performance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an isometric drawing of the prior art.

FIG. 2-A is an exploded drawing of the invention herein.

FIG. 2-B is a magnified view of the invention herein.

FIG. 3 is an isometric drawing of the invention herein.

FIG. 4-A is an orthographic drawing of the invention herein.

FIG. 4-B is an orthographic drawing of the invention herein followingassembly.

FIG. 4-C is an orthographic drawing of the invention herein beforerotation.

FIG. 5 is an orthographic drawing of an embodiment of the inventionherein.

FIG. 6-A is an exploded drawing of another model of the invention herein(1).

FIG. 6-B is an isometric drawing of the other model of the inventionherein (1).

FIG. 7-A is an exploded drawing of another model of the invention herein(2).

FIG. 7-B is an isometric drawing of the other model of the inventionherein (2).

FIG. 8-A is an exploded drawing of another model of the invention herein(3).

FIG. 8-B is an isometric drawing of the other model of the inventionherein (3).

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 2-A, FIG. 2-B, and FIG. 3, the foam material modulartoy structure of the invention herein consists of differently shapedsolid components fabricated from a foam material, the said solid foamcomponents 1 are fashioned into the constituent parts of variousanimals, plants, and other product objects that are assembled intocomplete three-dimensional models, wherein each solid foam component 1has an octagonal through-hole 11 and a projecting umbrella-shaped tenon12, or a connecting rod 2, the two extremities of which haveumbrella-shaped tenon 22 and an octagonal through-hole 21 similar to theumbrella-shaped tenon 22 and octagonal through-hole 11 of the solid foamcomponent 1; as such, the user can assemble quantities of the said solidfoam components 1 having the elastic umbrella-shaped tenons 12 as wellas the umbrella-shaped tenons 22 and octagonal through-holes 21 at thetwo extremities of the connecting rod 2 by inserting them into theoctagonal through-holes 11 of other solid foam components 1 (as shown inthe FIG. 3 and FIG. 4-A), enabling the children to recognize and beimpressed by the said object.

The umbrella-shaped tenon 22 and octagonal through-hole 11 in each solidfoam component 1 along with the connecting rod 2 umbrella-shaped tenons22 and octagonal through-holes 21 are thereafter insertionally fittedtogether to provide for rotationally controlled joint applications,while the umbrella-shaped tenon and octagonal through-holes utilizerotational corner contact to achieve a rigid appearance (as shown inFIG. 4-B and FIG. 4-C), each solid foam component 1 capable of beingarticulated at a range of angles and kept in a fixed position withoutcollapsing due to weight factors, as indicated in FIG. 5; when rotated,since the immobilizing contact of the umbrella-shaped tenons andoctagonal through-holes is elastic because of the foam material and doesnot involve convergence between two hard materials, there is no rapidwear and consequent slippage due to revolving, providing for prolongedcontinual rotation.

As such, since the invention herein does not contain wood and isfabricated of a foam material, the depletion of such precious resourcesis not a concern; furthermore, the advantages of foam materialconstruction include component durability, lighter weight than plastic,resilience, wider application range, and greater utility than plastic,especially in terms of long-term constant rotational operation, angulararticulation, and rigidity without collapsing due to weight factors asmight be the case for other materials, enabling the assembled toy to beflexile, lively, and consequently stimulate a child's interest andoperation. Additionally, since foam material has inherent elasticity andthe umbrella-shaped tenons 12 and 22 can be manually withdrawn from theoctagonal through-holes 11 and 21, the entire toy is easily disassembledinto constituent parts to reduce space occupancy and facilitate storage.

By the same principle, each solid foam component 1 can be fabricatedinto the anatomical members of the various animals (as shown in FIG.6-A, FIG. 6-B, FIG. 7-A, and FIG. 7-B) or other interchangeable parts(as shown in FIG. 8-A and FIG. 8-B) such that the user is afforded theopportunity to creatively connect the holes in the solid foam components1 by means of the umbrella-shaped tenons 21 at the two extremities ofthe connecting rod 2, thereby achieving the objectives of stimulatingintellectual thought and development.

In summation of the foregoing section, since the invention herein iscapable of providing for repeated creative assembly as well as livelyand flexile operational performance, the present invention meets newpatent application requirements and is submitted to the patent bureaufor review and the granting of the commensurate patent rights.

1. A foam material modular toy structure, comprising: a plurality ofdifferently shaped solid components, each being fabricated from anelastic foam material, each solid component having at least one of anoctagonal through-hole, and a projecting umbrella-shaped tenonintegrally fixed to a neck portion, with the tenon of one of the solidcomponents being insertable into the octagonal through-hole of anotherone of the solid components, such that when users manually assemble thesolid components according to their own creativity by inserting thetenon into one side of a corresponding octagonal through-hole until theneck portion is disposed within the corresponding octagonalthrough-hole, and the tenon projects from another side of thecorresponding through hole, the solid components are conjoined intoimaginative toys; at the same time, an insertional coupling formed bythe inserting of the tenon into the corresponding octagonal through-holeprovides for rotatably controlled joint applications, with each saidsolid component being capable of being articulated at a range of anglesand kept in a fixed position without collapsing due to weight factors,thereby enabling an assembled toy to be flexile and lively; wherein theelastic foam material has an inherent elasticity that allows saidumbrella-shaped tenons to be manually withdrawn from the octagonalthrough-holes, thereby allowing the assembled toy to be easilydisassembled into constituent parts to reduce space occupancy andfacilitate storage, so that the invention herein is thereby capable ofproviding for repeated creative assembly as well as lively and flexileoperational performance.
 2. The foam material modular toy structurerecited in claim 1, wherein the tenons and the octagonal through-holesare adapted to maintain the solid foam components in a fixed position.